


Light

by orphan_account



Category: FFXV - Fandom, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Ending, Blind Ignis Scientia, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, M/M, Post-Game, Romance, Spoilers, but not for long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 01:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15570822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When the sun banishes the darkness from the land of Eos, everyone rejoices in the miracle. When the sun banishes the darkness from the man cursed to live within it forever, Gladio rejoices in their love.Or: the one where Ignis sees again.





	Light

**Author's Note:**

> I’m a sucker for fix-its, and I wanted to try my hand at writing from Gladio’s point of view. A bit hard in a scene like this, but I thought I’d give it a go. Enjoy!

Gladio couldn’t even remember how long they’d been fighting. 

The dissonant sound of daemons was their only constant besides the darkness that had surrounded them for ten whole years. Their entire lives had all built up to this moment, the culmination of all their hard work, blood, sweat, tears all for this endless span of time, but nothing could have prepared him for this. Nothing even came close to the onslaught they faced now. 

Gladio couldn’t be there with Noct in this moment; this was the best he could do, the only way he could help: fighting off the monsters for as long as he could stay alive. As wave after wave came at them, he fought with the strength of the Amicitia line and poured everything he’d become into fighting, staying alive, keeping his friends safe. If it cost him his life, then so be it; this was everything he’d been raised for. This is what his life meant. 

They fought until he no longer felt the excruciating pain of each blow landed by an enemy, the constant barrage turning his hands and arms and mind numb. But Gladio wasn’t fighting to stay alive. He was fighting for the lives of those he treasured more than anything, more than his own, even if he didn’t live to see them through to the very end. He slashed and blocked and dodged and struck and burned, and yet he still had a mind to protect, to search frantically for the bodies of the ones he loved and ensure they weren’t limp, lifeless forms lying on the blood-soaked pavement. The very ground trembled beneath them. 

For a while, Gladio couldn’t remember a time before the onslaught of daemons, felt that it wouldn’t ever end during their lifetime. But somewhere in the midst of their war came a new, sudden, radiating wave of...something. A feeling, more than anything else, a sense of clarity and pain and resolution. 

Gladio had of have been killed; it would be the only explanation. He’d finally earned his heroic death, fighting for Eos. Nothing else could explain the soft glow in the sky, colors he thought he might never see again. Nothing else could explain the warmth that slowly began to wash over him, floodlights pouring from the sky and onto his face. Nothing else could explain the _light._

 _The sun._

The daemons could very well have still been clawing and raging and sounding their battle cries, but Gladio was indifferent. It could have meant his death, but right now, nothing could stop his broadsword from clattering to the ground, gaze fixed upwards at the warm glow. 

They’d done it. 

The next thing he knew, the familiar hiss of daemons fizzing out to their underworld, to their death, filled the air. All across the spread of land facing the citadel, creatures dissolved into nothing, leaving their dark residue in their wake for only a moment before they were gone, as if they’d never been here, as if the past ten years of death and darkness had never occurred. But his job wasn’t over, not yet. There was no time to rest, not when he was alone on the battlefield, the shield alive and well in the end with no idea as the the condition of the ones he loved. Gods, if Gladio was the sole survivor, there was no way he’d be able to live with himself. All his strength put to waste. What good was a shield who let his charge, friends, and lover die before him? 

Astrals, what if they were all dead? 

The bitter tang of panic faded as quickly as it had risen as his eyes fixed on two familiar faces; Ignis, and Prompto in his arms. The blond was teary-eyed, a grin as bright as the near-forgotten sun plastered on his face, yet donning an expression he couldn’t quite place. 

“Gladio, come here! Quick!” 

If it weren’t for his strange grin, Gladio might have thought something was wrong. His words were just barely on the side of unsettling, but how could they be when the three of them were here, the sun rising for the first time in a decade? 

His legs must have made the executive decision to carry him forward, because before he could think about anything else, he was at their side. 

When Ignis turned towards him, his shades lost somewhere in the battlefield, he saw a glimmer there that was more powerful than the first sunrise. The cloudy film that once covered his gaze, though it had slowly faded with time, had completely disappeared along with the darkness of the rest of the world. 

“Iggy?” He asked, revealing a hint of hope that he dared to feel in the chaos that this world had brought on. Initially, the only reply he received was a slender but scarred hand reaching out to cup his cheek, followed by his other hand mirroring the action so that his face was cradled in the soft hands of his lover. 

At his touch, he finally registered the sting of a partially fresh wound, and the blood that had dried over it. Another to add to his impressive collection. But it hardly mattered, not when he was alive. 

Ignis’s eyes seemed to scan the injury, to really scan his face as if he was trying to memorize every little detail, no matter how roughed up they both were. Gladio found himself gazing into his eyes, and saw something that shook him to his core. 

_Really, truly gazing into those eyes, those forbidden eyes, like he never thought he’d be able to again._

“Gladiolus…” The man began, mouth agape and lips quivering as if something more powerful than both deamons and the sun had come over him. “I…” 

“You– your– ” was all he managed in return, because there was something so beautiful and aware about his crystal clear gaze, and the tears that both dampened and illuminated the distinctive emerald. “Can you–” 

“Yes,” the other man breathed as he scanned the face of his lover for the first time in ten years, a third of his life. They’d both made peace with his blindness a long time ago, accepting his condition in a bittersweet defeat. But now, Gladio was certain, Ignis could see him, and the look in the advisor’s eyes brought tears to his own. 

“My word, you’ve aged handsomely,” he said with a wet chuckle, before Gladio fell to his knees and flung his arms around the man’s waist. Ignis followed close behind, kneeling before the shield and reclaiming his face in his hands. “Darling, please, let me look at you.” 

If Gladio himself was overwhelmed at this miracle, he couldn’t begin to imagine what Ignis must be attempting to process. Though ashamed by his selfishness, Gladio held his head high for the other man to see, as if making up for lost time, lost sight. He was met by a face normally so composed, never allowing himself any emotion, now wet with tears that flowed freely. 

It was second nature for Gladio to bring his hands up, wipe those beautiful tears away. To cradle the smaller man’s face in his hands, gently, as if afraid he would break, until finally he managed to tear his gaze away in order to press their lips together in a kiss that was all too familiar and entirely new. 

Gladio’s arms wound around the advisor’s lithe waist, while Ignis’s hands tangled themselves through his hair, as if he was experiencing everything for the first time though they’d often shared heated kisses and so much more. When their lips brushed and tongues swiped, gentle and persistent with just a hint of desperation, there was a fever to it that Gladio hadn’t ever felt, not since Altissia. A fervour that told him that they were miraculously still alive and in each other’s arms. All he knew was lips and teeth and tongue and _Ignis_.  

They kissed with a building desperation, as if they didn’t have all the time in the world. Lips glided and molded against each other, bodies flushed together as Gladio kissed him like the dying man he had very nearly become. They didn’t stop until Prompto cleared his throat loud enough to snap them out of it. The two of them parted, but only enough that their lips weren’t connected. There was no way in hell that Gladio was letting go of his lover any time soon. 

“Hello, dear,” Ignis said, though it seemed like they’d been in each other’s arms for ages. It was like seeing him for the first time all over again, quite literally for Ignis. 

“Hey there, gorgeous,” he said, earning a smile from the weary yet very much alive Ignis. No, he was better than alive. He was alive and he could see, in a world where neither seemed like they’d ever be possible for Ignis at the end of all things. . Foreheads still pressed together, the sun rising in the east, Gladio couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face, widening when he saw the smile on Iggy’s face in return. For a long time, it had seemed that they might never smile together again. No matter what outcome they’d imagined, nothing seemed possible except the ending that ended in tragedy. 

Now, with Ignis in his arms, smiling came just as naturally as their love. 

“Alright, bring it in, buddy,” Gladio finally acknowledged the third member of their party, hardly having time to retaliate until the gunslinger and his massive grin came barreling into them from the side. Good thing Gladio was big enough to wrap the both of them in his arms, because he had no intention of letting either of them go any time soon. 

As long as he lived, he swore to keep them safe. The battle was far from over, but they had the sun blazing above their heads, in Prom’s smile, in Iggy’s eyes, and in Gladio’s heart. And that would lead them wherever they needed to go.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, apologies for leaving Noct out of the picture. You can imagine the ending you want, but that leads me to this: I’m thinking of writing an addition to this fic, the same story but from Ignis’s point of view and perhaps a little extra scene. Drop me a message in the comments if you’d like to see it! As always, thanks for all the love <3
> 
> [Send me stuff on Tumblr!](https://roguespectacle.tumblr.com)


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